Games FPS gradually getting lower as time passes

egorgeg

egorgeg

Enthusiast
Hello, I really need some help;

I got a new gaming PC from this website and it has been working perfect for about a week, but now for some reason I have gone from: ArmA 2: DayZ at 55-60 FPS on High/Very High settings to running it on Medium at 40-50 FPS, on Ultra it is at 15-20 on a min of around 5. It's not just ArmA 2: DayZ either, as I play Company of Heroes a lot, at first I was playing it in Ultra everything at around 90-120 FPS, lowest at around 65, now its at 40-50 FPS, and sometimes goes as low as 15. Both games stutter a bit as well, which they didn't do before.

Also my PC is far better than the requirements for GTA IV, but I have to run it on medium and the detail and draw distance way low, my PC even beats the requirements for the iCEnhancer 1.35 mod very high end version, but cant even run on all low settings, with the low end version of the mod.

I haven't done anything to it, I haven't upgraded it at all, the only thing I have done is change the scaling on the monitor so the display fits the screen.

Any help would be great, also, keep it simple, I'm no very tech, cheers.
 
egorgeg

egorgeg

Enthusiast
Well, I am rather sadly on it most of the day, how do I check the temp? I think that may be it. Also, I do notice that the back gets pretty hot where the fan for the GPU is, the CPU and front fans are cool. Maybe I need to get better ventilation.
 
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A

Adli

Enthusiast
sounds like your CPU/GPU is throttling to avoid overheating.

download CPU-ID Hardware Monitor and play a game :)
 
egorgeg

egorgeg

Enthusiast
I'll give that a try in the morning, what does the program do? If it shows how much % the game uses I have done benchmarks, it shows GTA IV using around 50% for GPU and CPU, no idea if that helps.
 
A

Adli

Enthusiast
it shows the minimum, current and maximum temperatures for different parts of the PC (CPU,GPU,HDD, etc).

open it in the background and play a game. after you finish the game you will be able to see what the maximum temperature was for each part. also, you can alt-tab out of the game to check the current temps.
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
Have you tried reinstalling/updating graphics driver,going by your previous posts I'm assuming you have an AMD graphics card.
Click on Start
Open the Control Panel
Select Programs and Features
Select AMD (ATI) Catalyst Install Manager
Click on Change
Click on Next when prompted for the Welcome to the InstallShield Wizard forAMD Catalyst Install Manager,
Select Express Uninstall All Software
Follow the on-screen directions and restart the system when finished
To verify that the graphics driver has been uninstalled, return to the Uninstall or Change a Program list and ensure that there is no AMD specific software listed
If AMD specific software is still listed, remove any remaining AMDsoftware components using the above process and restart the system when complete.
Download latest driver from here.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
 
egorgeg

egorgeg

Enthusiast
@adli; I see, I will try it out tomorrow thanks.

@vanthus; yea, the card is a ATI Radeon HD7870. I assumed the card drivers would be up to date automatically when I got the PC. Wouldn't uninstalling all of the GPU driver ruin the pc if I didn't have a driver? Sorry if i misunderstand.
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
egorgeg said:
@adli; I see, I will try it out tomorrow thanks.

@vanthus; yea, the card is a ATI Radeon HD7870. I assumed the card drivers would be up to date automatically when I got the PC. Wouldn't uninstalling all of the GPU driver ruin the pc if I didn't have a driver? Sorry if i misunderstand.
Click to expand...
It would do no harm to your PC to do a clean install off the graphics driver,it's pretty common procedure,worth a try,but by all means check for overheating problems first if you prefer.
 
egorgeg

egorgeg

Enthusiast
I will do those first yea, and try out a new place with better ventilation first, what I meant was if I uninstalled all of my drivers, then restarted the pc, so then it has no driver for the card whatsoever, would that harm it in any way?
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
egorgeg said:
what I meant was if I uninstalled all of my drivers, then restarted the pc, so then it has no driver for the card whatsoever, would that harm it in any way?
Click to expand...
No,windows will use it's own basic graphics drivers.
 
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egorgeg

egorgeg

Enthusiast
I will post the temps much later in the afternoon, and see if all is normal, I will post them in the current condition, if they are too high, I will move the PC for better ventilation (I may move it anyway, it's in an awkward spot). I think it may be the problem, as the front large fan, and the one in the middle/top are both fine and are cool, the back one where the GPU fan is when playing games gets quite hot pretty fast.
 
egorgeg

egorgeg

Enthusiast
Hey, I have got MSI Afterburner and Core Temp up while idle, just a few windows open on the browser, and a YouTube video running. Core temp says Core 1 - 36 Degrees Core 2 - 39 Degrees Core 3 - 32 Degrees and Core 4 is at 35 degrees. Are those all okay on idle?

And MSI afterburner says my fan speed is Auto at 29 at idle, is that okay? Also GPU at idle is at 32 degrees, is that okay as well? That's apparently at 1% usage at the moment.

I will play some games, like GTA IV and ArmA 2 DayZ and see what the temp gets like then. Any advice would be great ;)

Edit, watching the YouTube video the Core temps are 45, 48, 44, and 43. Is that fine? After the video I will be going on a game to check it out then.

EDIT: Playing GTA IV, GPU usage at 90-95% temp at highest was 63, that was after about 7 mins of driving around. Fan speed was on auto at speed 47. Cores were staying around 55-60 degrees. Is all of this good? All settings were maximum. (Game running at 20-30 FPS)

Going to play ArmA 2 DayZ later, I will wait for some replies ;)
 
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K

Karnor00

Bright Spark
It doesn't sound like a heat problem to me tbh - particularly as the temperatures you posted aren't particularly hot (in fact they are fairly low). As far as I'm aware GPUs don't generally throttle down when they get too hot - instead the fan speed goes up to keep the card cool. If this still isn't enough then eventually the GPU will just overheat and shut off automatically - you'd notice this as a crash, not lower framerates.

I'd certainly recommend reinstalling the graphics drivers just to make sure you have the latest version. The other thing I would check is to make sure that nothing is running in the background and slowing things down - maybe a virus scanner or system utilities?

I'd suggest calling PCS to see if they can help.
 
egorgeg

egorgeg

Enthusiast
I usually have only Steam running because my games are on Steam, and fraps running to show my FPS. I have installed Driver Max and checked latest drivers, all says my HD7870 is up to date.
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
egorgeg said:
Hey, I have got MSI Afterburner and Core Temp up while idle, just a few windows open on the browser, and a YouTube video running. Core temp says Core 1 - 36 Degrees Core 2 - 39 Degrees Core 3 - 32 Degrees and Core 4 is at 35 degrees. Are those all okay on idle?

And MSI afterburner says my fan speed is Auto at 29 at idle, is that okay? Also GPU at idle is at 32 degrees, is that okay as well? That's apparently at 1% usage at the moment.

I will play some games, like GTA IV and ArmA 2 DayZ and see what the temp gets like then. Any advice would be great ;)

Edit, watching the YouTube video the Core temps are 45, 48, 44, and 43. Is that fine? After the video I will be going on a game to check it out then.

EDIT: Playing GTA IV, GPU usage at 90-95% temp at highest was 63, that was after about 7 mins of driving around. Fan speed was on auto at speed 47. Cores were staying around 55-60 degrees. Is all of this good? All settings were maximum. (Game running at 20-30 FPS)

Going to play ArmA 2 DayZ later, I will wait for some replies ;)
Click to expand...

63c for GPU is fine, have you considered putting the fan speed slightly higher though? On EVGA Precision X you can create your own fan curve, then you can put it slightly above the current line to give you a bit of extra fan speed and keep the GPU cooler
 
egorgeg

egorgeg

Enthusiast
I can user define the fan speed on the afterburner, no idea what speed it should be or anything.

I played ArmA 2: DayZ, and while the back of the PC, where the GPU fan is, was hot, when I left the game, it at highest was at 70 degrees, CPU usage at 99%, cores were around 50-60 degrees, the fan speed was 51 auto.

What do the clock speeds and things mean? It just stays at 1000 when playing any games. what do i do to the sliders for Power limit (%), core clock (MHz) and Memory Clock (MHz)?

Edit: Also, I was running it all max, except draw distance AF and AA were normal, was at 50-60 FPS, no idea why the performance dropped, it's fine again. I'm confused. CoH as well, now is running 60 FPS constant.
 
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